(Newser)
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One line in a court order has revealed what PennLive calls a "bombshell" in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary S. Glazer wrote than an insurer—involved in a dispute over whether it should cover the $60 million in settlements Penn State has paid to 26 men who said they were abused by Sandusky, per NBC News—claims that "in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU's Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he [the child] was sexually molested by Sandusky." The detail comes from a deposition, ostensibly with that victim, taken as part of the insurance case.

If the allegation about Paterno is true, it would mean he knew about Sandusky's crimes 22 years earlier than stated in special investigator reports, which alleged that Paterno knew in 1998. Before his death, Paterno said he became aware of allegations in 2001. "An allegation now about an alleged event 40 years ago, as represented by a single line in a court document regarding an insurance issue, with no corroborating evidence, does not change the facts. Joe Paterno did not, at any time, cover up conduct by Jerry Sandusky," the Paterno family's lawyer says. Sports Illustrated outlines four reasons why "it will likely never be known if the allegation against Paterno is true, false or somewhere in between."

Its possible one of the reasons he stayed on as coach was because he wanted this kept secret and did not want any new coaches around or even an assistant coach and he did what?... finally hired the very one who witnessed the act. One thing about small towns, no one needs a telephone in those areas. Secrets spread in the wind like wildfire. The worse sickness about crimes to children by adults is those who knew and did not care and did nothing to save the child. And I bet they even went to church every week with this secret.One thing about wrongs is they do not stop with one act. It grows everyday like a snowball creating more wrongs to keep the first wrong.

SonnySky

Sep 9, 2017 9:31 AM CDT

People want to believe and think, oh he was an elderly man and would not know what that was. Really! The act was not recently only enacted in the 20th century. As the Bible says there is nothing new under the sun.